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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE BREAKING 
OF BONDS 

A DRAMA OF THE SOCIAL UNREST 



BY 

ARTHUR DAVISON FICKE 

Author of " The Earth Passion," " The 
Happy Princess," "From the Isles." 




BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1910 



Copyright, 1910 
Sherman, French & Companv 






•GLa:373(;s9 



0^ 



TO 

MY FATHER AND MOTHER 



preface 

..." Hark, the rushing snow ! 
The sun-awakened avalanche! whose mass, 
Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there 
Flake after flake, in heaven-defying minds 
As thought by thought is piled, till some great 

truth 
Is loosened, and the nations echo round, 
Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now." 

SHELLEY, "PROMETHEUS UNBOUND^' 

" Enter : here, also, there are Gods." 

HERACLITUS 

No theme presents itself to a writer of our 
generation with more compelling interest or 
greater difficulties of treatment than does the 
story of modern social unrest. Before our eyes 
is being enacted, slowly in time but very surely 
in effect, one of the critical upheavals in the 
history of civilization; yet because of the im- 
mensity of this movement's scope and the scat- 
tered nature of its manifestations, we seem at 
a loss to embody in our literature more than 
mere episodes of either its present condition or 
its future consequences. Economic treatises 
and partisan tracts we have ; but scarcely a sin- 
gle imaginative work of our time has attempted 
to comprehend and express the vital spirit of 
this change in any such measure as, for in- 



preface 



stance, Shelley expressed the burst toward lib- 
erty for mankind which marked the history and 
the thought of the beginning of the last cen- 
tury. Such an undertaking is one of large pro- 
portions, and large difficulties. It appalls even 
while it fascinates. I have many misgivings as 
I make the attempt ; yet I am emboldened by 
the feeling that this region of modern life cries 
aloud for its preemptors ; and that no writer 
need fear that he is trespassing on fields which 
should have been left for a greater than he: 
since we may be sure that it will be the task of 
many men, gradually, to create the epic of the 
future social order. 

An explanation seems to me desirable at the 
beginning of this undertaking; lest at the end 
the reader, having expected too much, should 
reproach me for failing to throw any useful or 
practical light on those bitter relations of class- 
hostility which are today around us on all sides, 
or to answer the many questions that arise and 
possess the mind of everyone who dwells much 
on these things. Let me suggest at once that 
this poem portrays a condition and one of its 
possible developments ; it does not attempt to 
provide remedies. Poetical imagination must 
fail altogether if it descends from its natural 
sphere and assumes work which is properly that 
of economic or political experience. Nor can it 



preface 



usefully urge its own peculiar intuitions as 
things of practical validity. Though a hun- 
dred Platos should relate their precious visions 
of Utopian Republics, such projects could 
never influence directly the machinery of legis- 
lation or the facts of social progress. These 
works fertilize the mind of the legislator; they 
do not themselves bring forth laws or systems. 
As stimulating types, and as types only, are 
they efficacious. To apply their theories prac- 
tically would mean disorganization of govern- 
ment. All this we know well. Yet we must 
recognize this distinction: — there is no weak- 
ness or evil inherent in Utopianism; it be- 
comes weak and evil only when it off^ers itself 
for immediate practical acceptance. Power- 
fully impressed by these limitations, I have ex- 
pressed in the following pages neither a politi- 
cal plan, nor a carefully rounded and utterly 
impossible scheme urged on the world for adop- 
tion. I have merely taken as a beginning the 
social hostility of today; I have transported it 
into the world of imagination ; and there let the 
dramatic forces inherent in the situation work 
out what I conceived to be their natural equilib- 
rium. 

Nor shall there be any attempt at prophesy- 
ing in these pages. Though I depict one line of 
events, I am aware that the future holds a 



preface 



thousand other equally possible lines. To ex- 
press a force, however, jou must embody it in an 
action. By so doing, you specifically define, 
and hence narrow the force; but you also reveal 
it. Writing, at bottom, of forces, I have been 
obliged to clothe them in imaginary events, — 
not as practical truth, but as possibilities of 
truth. When Shakespere brings it about that 
Othello kills Desdemona, he writes truth; be- 
cause that Othello should kill Desdemona is a 
logical dramatic possibility. Shakespere does 
not mean to advance the proposition that every 
Othello in real life will act similarly ; on the con- 
trary, the actual facts may happen to turn out 
quite differently. It is very possible that the 
hero will cool off, see reason, and live happily 
ever after with his faithful spouse. Still, be- 
yond and above this contradiction of reality, the 
murder of Desdemona would be poetically true, 
in that it formulates justly and finely one of 
the many possibilities of the situation, and ex- 
presses, as nothing else could, the potentialities 
of the nature of the Moor. For art can be true 
without being literal. So Aristotle, in distin- 
guishing between the poet and the historian, 
uses words which may serve equally well to set 
the poet apart from the prophet. "The busi- 
ness of the poet," he says, "is to tell not what 
has happened, but what should happen, and 



preface 

what is possible, either from its probabiHty, or 
from its necessary connection with what has 
gone before." By all this I mean that though 
you may convince yourself, if you will, that the 
incidents herein described will never occur in 
fact quite as I describe them, yet when you pen- 
etrate past the incidents to the forces which pul- 
sate beneath them, you will find the reality of 
these, their latent menace and their possible 
conflict, to be conclusions irresistible to every 
observer of the contemporary social unrest. 

Labor and Capital meet at a point which has 
become precisely the one where a whole host of 
remoter, invisible social evils produce their vis- 
ible and oppressive effect. The burdens of the 
unearned increment of land, of the trusts, of 
the tariff, of the chicanery of finance, of the in- 
creased cost of living, are all concentrated here, 
— are all unobserved yet active forces which pro- 
pel the laborer with concentrated violence 
against the one point of impingement — his re- 
lation to his employer: hence this point is so 
critical, so charged with ulterior electrical po- 
tency. Extrinsic imperfections here lend their 
effect to those which are inherent in the relation 
of employer and employed. In a word, though 
a thousand leaks in the mill-dam may drain the 
pond dry, it is at the miller's door alone that 
there arises the cry of want of bread. 



preface 

Only visionaries will imagine that one rem- 
edy can correct infinitely varied evils. Students 
of fact are even now busy tracing to each re- 
mote source the malignant causes ; and the 
slow patience of social evolution must work the 
cure. But to the poet remains the right to 
depict the point of crises, — to call up before 
the reader two great opponents each sustained 
by partial justice, each weakened by partial in- 
iquity, — and to illuminate the scene with the 
light of imagination, which, powerless itself, 
has before now been source of many powers. 

As to the form of this play, its complete di- 
vorce from realism, and its use of embodied ab- 
stractions as protagonists, I shall not comment: 
since, in any art, form is peculiarly a matter 
to be apprehended and appraised by the specta- 
tor according to the dictates of his personal 
sensibilities ; and the artist's explanation as to 
why he chose one means rather than another is 
an impertinence which neither wards off what- 
ever aversion nor increases whatever pleasure 
the work itself may arouse. But I cannot re- 
frain from calling upon the reader for assist- 
ance in one thing — the full vigor of his visu- 
alizing power ; without the exercise of which the 
curtain now being lifted will disclose only a 
barren stage peopled by grotesque shadows. 

1905-1910 



THE BREAKING OF BONDS 



DRAMATIS PERSONAE 

THE MEN WHO LABOR. 

THE MASTERS OF WEALTH. 

THE WATCHER. 

THE WISE MEN. 

THE SPIRIT OF BEAUTY. 

THE SPIRIT OF POWER. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE CITIES. 

THE HILL-SPIRIT. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAT OF CREATION. 



l:s«tM<w.-' 



prologue 



Mine eyes grow dizzy 'mid the cities' glooms. 
What but complete destruction here shall save 
The toiling millions? In some Titan grave 
Alone can be the solving of these dooms. 
Hope flares and fades as do the death-white 

plumes 
Of steam that from the hissing engines wave; 
And in the hearts that should be happy, rave 
The incessant voices of the terrible looms. 

And what shall mend.'^ Can any holy power 
From this Egyptian bondage set men free? 
Can any Spring call forth in wondrous flower 
This buried life to all that life might be? 
Or waits the world but for one whelming hour 
When all shall perish in Time's soundless sea? 



The world is chaos; and the Masses stream 
Like beasts upon whose vision phantoms swarm. 
Yet life from matter slowly moulds a form, 
And far to-morrow holds some fairer gleam 
For who can see, darting prophetic gleam 
Where, past the years of travail and alarm. 
Lightens the edge of a departing storm. 



prologue 



And fact shall prove what yet we dare not 
dream. 

No swift transforming in the inspired hour, 
No sudden light of wide victorious change 
Shall bring new triumph out of old defeat. 
Endure! Endure! It is no endless range 
Of years that lead us where at last man's power 
Shall mould his own salvation, as is mete. 



ACT I 



ACT I 

Scene — The high, dark summit of a tower in 
the midst of one of the greatest of cities. 
It is night, without moon or stars. Below 
the level platform of the tozaer-top spreads 
dimly the wide view of countless roofs and 
belching smoke-stacks, looming through 
the darkness. Smoke comes billowing up 
from beneath. 

THE WATCHER 

What darkness more than night is arched 
o'er heaven? 
Or is it that the Gods, if such there be, 
Are in the end outwearied, and have turned 
Their hoping eyes unto some other star 
And other race more tractable than man? 
Or have the Powers died silent on their thrones. 
Or never lived; — and only chaos reigns? . . . . 

Behold, the caverns of hell are opened now. 
And flare in swirling smoke and clamor and 

lights 
Up from the city's chasm-depth of streets. 
With a thunder and roar, the fierce, the tortured 

sound 
Bursts from its haunts, surges above the earth, 
And rising tier by tier through the vast piles 



4 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

That men have builded, shatters round about 
me 

The stinging piteous anguish of its spray. 

Oh men who toil before white furnaces ! 

Oh women slaving in unlighted rooms ! 

Oh giant thighs of engines, — wheels whose 
swift 

Uninterrupted whirl spins out the lives 

Of men like glass ! Oh whirr of terrible steel ! 

Your furious power sweeps by me, flecked with 
plumes 

Of driving steam and glare of pitiless fires, 

Straining with restless movement, tense con- 
vulsion, — 

Tortured with life that struggles to be free ! 

What dream of mine shall make this torment 
sweet ? 
What far-off hope assuage the present doom 
Of thousands stricken? In my heart I feel 
The times are past all mending, — out of tune 
Too mightily with heaven's just harmonies 
For any end save rending of the strings. 
Master and slave, oppressed and worn oppres- 
sor. 
Alike are fettered in the locking links 
Of that fierce engine built of tangled men 
Which rages through the world. And but one 
cry 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 



Arises from it, with the hoarse denial 

And desperation of a million hearts 

That have no God —yet cry— "Oh God, what 

end?" 
And I, who hear and tremble, find no words 
Save unavailing echo for reply. 

^Again those multitudinous voices rise 

From the dim city, like a far-off seal 

THE VOICES OF THE MEN WHO LABOE 

What meaning, and what end? 
Though death is dark, yet life is darker. 
Let the end come. 

Our arms are breaking now. 
Our eyes are heavy with dust. 
But the heart in the breast is sick 
Beyond sickness of the body. 

The sun grows dim. 

The air is poisoned 
For us within whose weary breasts 
A baleful loathing of our lot 

Feeds like a serpent. 

For chains are about us ; they bind us ; and 
none may tell us why. 



6 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Locked in the engine we sway like the piston, 

save only the soul, — 
The soul that still can feel, though the dull beat 

almost has killed it. 
And now it cowers in silence, knowing to dream 

is to die. 
We shall die soon enough, God knows. 
When the fiber of the body grows weak. 
When the sore-strained metal is flawed, 
Then, — and this only is sure, — we shall die, 

hungering for bread. 
Yet, — and God pity the world, — in our children 

the hunger lives on. 

What shadow is over the world .^ In the mists 

and the sulphurous steam 
Where we move, have the Gods forgotten, and 

left us alone to our doom.^^ 
Oh doom we cannot see ! Blind, blind ! Oh Gods, 

have pity, — 
Else shall we rise and rend you, though far 

your seats may be. 
What powers oppress us? Do ye? Give light, 

ere we clutch you and fall 
In ruin of you and us What powers 

oppress us? 



Cbe Breahing of Bonds 



THE WATCHER 

Lo! as in answer, I behold a light, 
Pale, luminously lovely, floating high 
Over the city ; and from it drifts down 
Music, like holiness shed on the night. 

THE SPIRIT OF BEAUTY 

Oh ye who drain life's scanty cup. 
Filling the present with your cries 
For light, for hope, for joy, — lift up 
Unto my heights your seeking eyes, 
And find what loveliness might be 
Shed like a dawn on earth and sea. 



I am the light, I am the dawn 
That beauty brings the waiting heart. 
Believe not I am wholly gone. 
Though sundered from you long apart. 
From out your night, seek ye my way 
Unto the portals of the day. 

I, chanted in a thousand hymns 
That all turn homeward to one shrine; — 
I, flame of lamp each poet trims; — 
I, form each painter knows divine: — 
These am I; yea, and I am goal 
Sought blindly by each trammeled soul. 



8 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

I, faithful, promise you these things 
If ye come to me: — such a fire 
Of joy as in the skylark sings ; 
Such passion of supreme desire 
As ends not with the mortal breath, 
But knows itself high lord of death. 

Who dwells in beauty, he shall be 
The master of a magic world. 
The eyes that I have kissed shall see 
A golden universe unfurled. 
Wherein the heart no more will strive 
For joys earth has not power to give. 

For in my calm all struggle dies 
Of earthly goals. The singing flame 
Which far above earth's clamor flies 
Draws up each soul that loves my name; 
And he, earth-bound no longer, sees 
The purpose of eternities. — 

He knows the mysteries of Spring, — 
The secrets of each lovely star 
In courts of heaven ; yea, no thing 
So bright or beautiful or far 
But it shall come to him and sing 
To wake his soul's remembering — 



Cbe Breahing of Bonds 9 

To wake remembering long ago 
Lost in the mists of his sad birth. 
But now, returning, he shall know 
Beauties more sacred than of earth ; 
And folded to my heart shall be 
Eternally, eternally. 

THE WATCHER 

Thou, holy beyond words spoken on earth. 
Have I not sought thee ever.^* Yes, in hours 
Of solemn afternoon or lyric dawn 
Thou hast vouchsafed me such a sight of thee 
As is enough for life, though all else fade. 

— But ye. Oh toilers bound upon the wheel, — 
What answer will ye make? — Behold the light, 
The Spirit that shall free you from your doom. 
Arise, and cry to her, with hearts aflame! 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

What light, what voice .^ 
The lights of furnaces blind our eyes. 
The voices of hammers fill our ears. 
Is there any answer to make to these? 
What light? What voice? 



10 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

THE WATCHER 

Look up — have ye not heard, have ye not 
seen ? 
Gaze upon Beauty, who atones for life. 

THE MEN WHO I.ABOR 

If we look up the machines will tear us. 
They wait, they watch to seize us. 
They snarl; they would rend us; but we are 

wise: 
Our eyes and our hands shall grip unceasing 

their throats. 

THE WATCHER 

Lift but one glance — Behold! — ^What see 
ye now.? 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Nothing! 

THE WATCHER 

Nothing! . . . Aye, Vision of serener 
heights, 
Thou f adest even now upon my gaze 
And takest flight to thy celestial home. 
And it is well: — what canst thou be to these 
Who see thee not ; what canst thou be to me 
Who, following thee, must leave eternally 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds ll 

The fellowship of these who are my blood? 
This hour is not for thee ; thou art too bright, 
Wrought of too tenuous visions for these times 
Wherein the world struggles in travail dim 
Toward some strange end. Thou art not for 

these eyes, 
So long oppressed with darkness that at last 

Darkness alone can be their element 

— But come, Oh Spirit which dwellest in the 

hills,— 
Thou who art source of all sweet natural joys, — 
Thou who dost cool the meadows, hush the 

night, — 
Whose magic haunts are valleys and slow 

streams, — 
Be thou before us, that old brotherhood 
With flowers and sun and creatures of the wood 
May flood returning through the withered soul. 

Thou art come ! What lips shall say but thou 
are fair.? 
The light of morning meadows is around thee, 
And in thine eyes the peace of summer noons. 
I hear the branches' rustle in thy garments ; 
And the lone bird beneath the moon of May 
Is not more sweet than the music of thy voice. 



12 Cbe Breahing of Bonds 

THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS 

Weary sons, who on my breast 
Stirred and struggled in unrest, — 
Ye who breathed my peaceful air 
Once, — who found my meadows fair 
Ere the cities all were built, — 
And then flocked where want and guilt 
Rose like poison-bearing flowers 
To oppress your troubled hours; — 
Now the destined day is come, 
Turn unto your ancient home. 

For I am Nature; I am she 
In whose bosom man was free 
As the glad wild things that play 
In the woods at peep of day. 
Wherefore did ye rove away.'' 
Wherefore were your longings whirled 
In the glamor of a world 
Fierce and clamorous and cold, 
Emptier than our hills of old.'' 
Ah, but now that it is past, 
I shall comfort you at last. 
Now, as once of old has been. 
Ye shall turn unto the green 
Hills of morning, where the air 
Whispers round your lips and hair 
Songs of all joys fresh and fair. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 13 

Bonds and bondage soon shall be 

Forgotten in the ecstacy 

Of that immortal minstrelsy. 

Ye shall remember only this — 

The scents and savors of the hills, 

The dancing waters' eager kiss, 

The dear unclouded peace that fills 

Every morn the spirit's bowl 

And is not dried up at even ; 

Mild desires which the soul 

Wins, and finds therein its heaven. 

Simple joys and labors sweet 

Shall round out your peaceful days. 

Ye shall forget the clamorous ways 

Wherein too long have moved your feet. 

Oh weary ones, I still am here 

To lead you from your toil apart; 

And by green hill and sleeping mere 

Ye shall be folded to my heart. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

We hear, great Mother, we hear. 
For thy touch is not dead in us. 
Still stirs in us the longing 
For thy life, that once was ours. 
Thy memory still haunts us 
In the hours of the night-watches 



14 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

With importunate longing 
Like a great cry. 
Yet we are bound as with fetters 
And the chains of doom are upon us ; 
How shall we burst them now 
And come forth unto thee? 
For another world is ours 
Than the fields where dwelt our sires, 
Where now we are as strangers 
That know not the return. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS 

About you twines the heavy chain 
Of restless need and custom vain. 
Judge life's false glories at their worth 
And to the simple earth come forth. 
Yea, cast in dust the sick desire 
That lures the son, as once the sire. 
For things that bring no happiness, 
For tawdry joys that never bless. 
For all the mingled pain and strife 
And that makes accursed the cities' life. 
Abandon worldly hopes, and free 
Come forth to me, come forth to me. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Yea, we would come to thee 
Save for her who holds us bound. 



Cbe Breahing of Bonds 15 

Hast thou looked upon her eyes? 
Hast thou felt her hands upon thee? 
A need is ours, and a horror, — 
A loathing, and a desire 
For the Spirit of the Cities, 
That will not let us free. 

THE WATCHER 

What form is this that hovers like a mist 
Out of the city? — Past the streets and flare 
Of chimneys, it is rising to this height. 
On bursting clouds of smoke, with fitful fire. 
See ! It grows denser — it takes shape, and stands 
Peering across the wilderness of roofs. 
— It will turn ; it will speak . . . Oh God, close 

up my sight ! 
Let me not see the horrible woman's shape, — 
The blind face, and the eyes that fiercely stare 
Out of her breasts, and the horror of her hands ! 

THE SPIRIT OF THE CITIES 

Who crieth? What vaporous phantom, what 

bodiless wind from the hills 
Would draw ye, — my children, my lovers, my 

worshipers, — hence to a shrine 
Where the happy beasts gather? Strange 

laughter wells up from the houses and fills 



16 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

The city to mock at the power that would meas- 
ure its greatness with mine. 

For the spell of my cities has woven around you, 
and mastered your blood, 

And filled you with needs and desires from which 
ye shall never go free. 

By the infinite lure of my life, of my changing 
and manifold mood, 

By your loathing and lust, by your hatred and 
love, ye are joined unto me. 

Can ye go to the woods and the hills whence 
so gladly of old came your sires.? 

Can ye give up all goals we have sought, and 
the cities so splendidly planned.? 

Lo! the past and the present have kindled the 
ceasingless urge of desires 

Undreamed by your fathers, and sated by none 
save my glimmering hand. 

Why cry ye of doom and oppressors.? Alike, 
men and masters are bound 

In the woof of my fabric whose greatness sur- 
passes the greatness of God. 

From my splendors of life and vast movement, 
from the spell of my glitter and sound. 

Can ye turn and go back to the silence and 
meager content of the sod.? 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds 17 

What ye are, I have made you ; and making, 
set on you my symbol and sign. 

And touched you with new hidden weakness, and 
filled you with new secret powers. 

And though ye go forth from the cities, this na- 
ture shall mark you as mine 

And ceaselessly follow your feet with devotion 
that fawns and devours. 

Ye shall fall, ye shall die if ye leave me; my 
hounds shall pursue you and slay. 

And the whirlwinds of heaven shall thunder 
where the tents of your morning were set. 

Ye shall lift up your moans and repentance of 
folly that darkened 3^our day ; 

But my towers shall loom coldly upon you ; nor 
welcome, nor ever forget. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Yea, we are thine; 
Our heads are bowed before thee. 
Eternally thine own. 
No hope can make us free. 
Against thy barriers 
We strain forever vainly. 
Thou hast made us what we are 
And we cannot go back. 



18 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Let the idle dreaming end 
Let us gaze not heavenward; 
Let us work out our doom 
To fulfillment of the end. 
Thou hast given us chains 
And we have chained ourselves. 
And the world we knew is lost. 
Let us work out our doom. 

THE WATCHER 

Gone every phantom: to its deep again 
Settles the pall of smoke and roar of sound; 
Settles the hope to grimmer misery ; 
And the worn heart takes on another stain. 

— What tread of feet is this? What swift 
approach ? 
What pageant out of hell rushes upon me.'' 
They come, the Masters, in a huddled crowd 
Driven beneath the whirling lash of One, 
A strange dark Form, a Spirit towering high, 
A Thunder-Fury, whose eyes, like steady light- 
ning. 
Dart here and there with the tongues of his 

cruel scourge. 
And the wild herd he drives struggle for ever 
One with another, and all are driven on. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 19 



Tliere appears a Pageant, — the Spirit of Power, 
a gigantic Fury, driving before it a great 
fiercely -struggling crowd. 



THE SPIRIT OF POWER 



Onward ! ye spirits dedicate to me, 
Lovers and fellow-sharers of my reign. 

THE WATCHER 

Who are ye, phantoms, whirling rapt and 
stem 
Out of waste caverns of some direful place? 

THE MASTERS OF WEALTH 

What halt is this? We, Masters of the age, 
Must on, must on ! nor in vain pause delay 
The course of Progress that is ours to guide. 
For time is short : the world's unfinished task 
Calls us to projects none except our eyes 
From out the future's close-entangled mesh 
Can trace and to articulate plan conform. 
Vast shapes of empire must be reared and set ; 
The ages press upon us to fulfill 
All their magnificence of prophecy. 
And which of us shall gain the mightiest sway 
No eye can see, though every heart may hope 
And battle keenly for his destiny. 



20 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Mirages of the future draw our steps. 
Imagination, blazing in the brain, 
Reveals the powers that may be gathered up 
Into the hand of him whose hand is strong. 
The homage and the wonder of all men. 
And power alone is godlike in the world, — 
The chosen attribute of deity, — 
The prize of our endeavor and desire. 
Therefore pause not ! Pausing is for the dead. 
The great attainment still is far; the goal 
Of Progress calls. Yea, and our high compeers, 
Captains and kings of old, would writhe in dust 
To see the promise. On ! for the moments flee 
And the hour sets that leads us to our throne. 

From far below in the city rise vnnumerahle 
voices. 

THE VOICES OF THE MEN WHO I^BOR 

Yea, if there is a God 
He has turned his face from us. 
And our hands are against him ; 
We will hurl him down. 
Our days are as death 
Save that they bring no ending. 
We will cast all from us 
And rise to destroy. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 21 

From glare of furnaces 
Our eyes are blind. 
Who now will guide us 
To the foe we seek? 
Let be revealed to us 
The power that crushes us. 
Show us our Oppressors ! 
Show us our Oppressors! 



ACT II 



ACT II 

Scene — The pleasant sun-lighted porches of a 
white retreat set in the middle of a forest- 
glade. In the foreground a clear foun- 
tain is playing. Music. 

THE WISE MEN 

What goal is end of man's desire? 
What final haven of the blest 
Shall give the immortal spirit rest 
Where music of the starry choir 
Shall weave around him its soft fire, 
And longing lip to lip be pressed? 

Who knoweth if, as prophet saith, 
Such haven anywhere shall be? 
Or if the soul eternally 
Must dwell beneath the hush of death? 
O eager heart and passionate breath, 
What if there is no home for thee? 

Yet what avails it if the stream 
Of life flows on, or dies away? 
Perhaps our souls that weep and pray 
Are but as phantoms in God's dream. 
And at his waking we shall stream 
To void, like ghosts at break of day. 



26 Zhc Breaking of Bonds 

THE MASTERS 

Ye wise men, searchers of the hidden deeps, 
We come to you for light on grievous things. 
Life is not wholly glad for us, though lords 
We seem to rule the tangled press of life. 
A strange distress, a brooding pain is ours; 
And not the splendors of our great estate 
Can make it sweeter. All our victories 
Over the scattered forces of the world, 
All our command of wide-extended power. 
Brings no content. Some barrier thwarts our 

steps 
To keep us ever from the path of joy. 
And we have heard far-off a dim unrest. 
Like threat of thunder to our troubled ears. 
These things oppress us, that we know not 

peace. 
Therefore make plain the mysteries of the heart, 
The key of joy, the secret of content; 
Reveal whereby we, Masters of the World, 
Being omnipotent in all things else. 
May lay our hands upon its happiness. 

THE WISE MEN 

High Lords, no perfect joy there is 
On earth; but nearest shall ye come 
To portals of its secret home 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 27 

By harkening to the harmonies 
Of Nature's deep and soothing bliss 
And musing where the planets roam. 

THE MASTERS 

Shall we, who with the dominance of mind 
Rule the material world, go seeking joy 
On the waste mountain-tops and desert places? 
Is this the sum of your laborious thought? 
Turn us not thus with idle words aside. 
Some means must be whereby unbridled power 
May force life's happiness to serve its will. 

THE WISE MEN 

Yours is the old unending cry 
To which no answer can be made. 
Behold, — unto our musing glade 
Already others come : stand by. 
Truth spake herself in our reply; 
Let wisdom on your hearts be laid. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Ye wise ones, we have come 
Beseeching light from you. 
Long have we toiled in chains 
And gained not the fruits of our toil. 
Hands have snatched them away, 



28 Cbe Breahing of Bonds 

And we knew not the taste thereof, 

And the joy of laboring died 

In dust upon our lips ; 

Till hope had perished in us, 

And life itself grew dim. 

And now we have arisen, 

We come beseeching you 

Out of your mighty wisdom 

To show us our Oppressors. 

For unto them we will go. 

We will rend them with fury 

Though it cost us life itself. 

Which is not so sweet to us. 

Naught have we now to lose; 

The final depth is ours ; 

Now shall some change come forth. 

However dire it be. 

At least an end shall dawn 

On the night of our oppression ; 

And though we live not to see it, 

Light shall break in the world. 

THE WISE MEN 

Wild hearts, how little do ye know 
Of secrets of the spirit's room ! 
No fierce Oppressor shapes your doom ; 
Your pain is but the eternal woe 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds 29 



Which in each soul must come and go, 
As every rose toward death must bloom. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Nay, other pain than such 
Is that whereof we speak. 
Our lives are crushed and spurned 
Beyond the blows of Fate. 
Death and defeat of hope 
All men can bear in silence ; — 
But not to live unhoping 
In bondage unto men. 
Man has our bondage made ; 
Man has weighed down our doom; 
With more than common woe 
Man has enfolded us. 
Ye who are wise, reveal 
What hand hath done this thing? 
With wrath more dire than God's, 
Who hath oppressed us? 

THE WISE MEN 

Yours is the old unending cry 
To which no answer can be made. 
Even we, within our musing glade, 
Have felt dim burdens on us lie. 
Dreams of Oppressors put ye by. 
Which fancy on your hearts has laid. 



30 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

THE SPIRIT OF POWER 

I, I arise to be your revelation ! 
Behold ! They stand there in your very sight, — 
The Masters, your oppressors, come to seek 
New ways of forging fetters over you. 
They waver and they hesitate ; and I, 
No more the ally of their weakened hour. 
Scorning the trembler, now will lead you on. 

THE MEN WHO I.AB0R 

Are ye those dark oppressors, long secret and 

unseen. 
Whose dominance has been upon us like a chain ? 
Whose burdens were a load beyond our tortured 

power. 
Forever and forever stifling our very breath .f^ 
In our dark city streets, in crowded homes of 

want. 
Have we long brooded, dreaming of the coming 

of an hour 
When face to face at last we might behold our 

Masters. 
Now openly declare if such indeed ye be. 

THE MASTERS 

What Masters speak ye of? We know not 
aught of them, 



Cbc Breahirig of Bonds 31 

Nor aught of ye, save that ye are the toilers of 

the world, — 
Low servants of great tasks. To us ye give 

your labor, 
But freely, for reward. Our hands oppress no 

man. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Who set us unto labor.'' Who holds us bound 
to toil? 
Who bids us serve like slaves or die for want of 
bread ? 

THE MASTERS 

Confusion strange is on you. — With might 
of mind we plan 

Colossal systems, turning like interlocking 
w^heels. 

To shape the stuffs of earth by intricate design 

Into what mould may serve the need and press 
of life. 

Your hands bring useful aid toward this accom- 
plishment : 

Hence do we give employ to such of ye as come. 

Freely ye come or go : simple the matter stands : 

Wherefore do ye reproach us with blind impas- 
sioned speech.? 



32 Cbc Breaking of Bonds 

THE MEN WHO LABOE 

Your subtly-woven words veil not, for light 
bursts wildly, 

And we at last behold the well-spring of our lot. 

Our bitter need creates your opportunity : 

And for a crust ye buy the toil that makes you 
great. 

And as your might has grown, ye have fettered 
us more closely, 

And made us toil for a pittance, and our chil- 
dren knew not bread. 

This shall ye answer us, no more subdued in 
darkness, — 

Once naked at your mercy, once scourged be- 
neath your feet. 

A million hands reach up to tear you from your 
places 

An ye are silent now, who silent were too long. 

THE MASTERS 

Tax not too heavily our patience with com- 
plaint. 

Let thought illume your minds ere your tongues 
utter hate. 

Ye have exacted ever the utmost we could yield. 

Snarling anew with greed at every bounty won. 

We pay a generous wage for your unskillful 
brawn ; 

Ye grudgingly perform what little toil ye must. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 33 

Sluggards and shirkers all, with evil-hearted 

spite 
Covetous to enjoy the fruits of our success. 
Unreasoning demands are ever on your lips : 
Your hands are ever idle, — save on the payment 

day. 

THE MEN WHO 1.ABOE 

Peace from this ancient talk! Threats profit 
not today. 
Open your close-walled minds and strive to un- 
derstand. 
Between us lies a gulf your thought has never 

passed, 
Ye who regard our service but as your rightful 

due; 
Infinite dark abysses of want and hopelessness, 
Caverns of nightmare toil, divide us utterly. 
Not as free men ye deem us, but serfs of your 

estate. 
Ye give us as our portion only our daily bread, 
Like slaves to whom is doled sufficient to sustain 
Life, that their strength may last in service of 

their lord. 
And even the harsh labor that wins us livlihood 
Ye sometimes have denied us, for purposes un- 
known 
Closing your doors and driving a thousand 
laborers forth 



84 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

To starve, or seek elsewhere the privilege of 

toil! 
And when old age comes on, then are we cast 

aside, — 
Beasts in your service crippled, tools broken by 

your hands. 
We, bowed in darkness, bear the burden of the 

world : 
Ye in the forefront shine, the fortunate and 

great. 
Like iron of the furnace ye daily buy and sell 
Are we, a thing of commerce, — your laborers, 

your slaves! 

THE MASTERS 

Ye speak with tongues of children. No man 

is held a slave. 
By law forbid. Then answer: — Is justice 

bought and sold.^ 
Even ye dare not utter so manifest a lie. 
Before the Law ye also are free and equal men. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

With words hke chaff ye feed the hunger of 

our thoughts. 
In truth. Law is not sold: yet gold has power 

to set 
Slow bars to justice: — lo, we starve: thus ye 

prevail. 



Cbe Breahing of Bonds 35 

Therefore the Law is yours ; ours the appeal in 
vain. 

THE MASTERS 

Law, made by mortal hands, is filled with 

frailties, 
Beset with imperfections, which we likewise 

lament. 
But how, O men of wisdom, will ye transmute 

these things 
Into the clear perfection so easy on your lips? 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Oh, admirable words! — Why are our days a 

dusk 
Of toil among fierce engines? Why are our 

bodies torn 
By the vast angry wheels ? Why are our homes 

the home 
Of poverty and hunger? Why are the fruits 

of toil, 
Our toil, thus taken from us to feed your lux- 
ury? 
We lack the bread of life : your wealth o'erflows 

the earth. 
To make your pleasant hours, our thousand 

days are slain. 



36 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Ye squander for a fancy, — a moment's bubble- 

joy,— 

Enough to make our desolate old age secure and 

bright. 
Wherefore are all these things? Do ye indeed 

inherit 
From God some higher right to live in happi- 
ness ? 
Have we no bodies, too, to feel the sting of 

want, — 
No souls to yearn for hope and progress toward 

some goal? 
The long gray days of labor that bring no hope 

fulfilled. 
The nights of sleep, the body's weariness of 

despair. 
The morn that comes unwelcomed, the passing 

forth once more 
To the allotted toil: — do these suffice for life? 
Lo, ye have raised high walls, and set us apart 

from you; 
And the hopes and fears are yours, and ours the 

blind dumb toil; 
Though it is our right to strive, our right to win 

or lose 
Each one his goal; but even the right to lose 

ye have taken. 
In impotent resentment we walk your golden 

streets 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds 37 

And watch the rich procession with bitter 

smouldering eyes ; 
And feel arising in us a tide no shore may bar, 
Crowded with floating wreckage of all our 

ruined years. — 
Why should our children toil as the servants of 

your children? 
Why should our sons be slaves to the pastime of 

your sons? 
Why should our daughters serve as handmaids 

to your daughters, 
Or spend sad lives in labor to weave them rich 

attire, 
Or give their souls and bodies for the unright- 
eous pleasure, 
For the unholy riot and ruin of your sons? 

THE MASTERS 

How easy, how delightful, to heap before one 

door 
All the world's ills, and cry to us — Behold your 

work, base men ! 
Are we the Lords of Heaven? Is misery in our 

hands 
To give or to withhold? Nay, look with clearer 

eyes. 
Many things have we wrought: — of evils some, 

perchance ; 



38 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

But these are lost and buried in the blessings we 

have given. 
Because of us, ye gain a thousand boons un- 
known 
To them that were your fathers. Our eager 

brains have toiled 
To bring the magic wealth of new years unto 

you. 
Because of us, the ship plows the unfathomed 

waves ; 
We bid the spark leap out across two continents ; 
Our daring thought has bade the engine do your 

task. 
Has given light and shelter, has made your lot 

more sweet. 
Through anxious days and nights, shaping these 

precious things. 
Our labor, even as yours, is worthy of its hire. 
Ye earn the daily wage that fits the narrow 

scope ; 
The prize of mighty projects is ours who look 

afar. 
In all this have we striven with mighty rivals 

ever, — 
All working toward one end, yet each opposing 

each. 
Hence must our hands be strong; hence must 
our wealth be great, — 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 39 

Could we give you all, and perish before our 

stern compeers? 
Had wealth been never ours, — had every man 

amongst you 
Possessed in equal portion these concentrated 

powers. 
Then were a thousand years of history unborn, 
And ye would tread a poor, unhabitable earth. 
We have enriched the world beyond the dreams 

of ages ; — 
In these great undertakings ye could have 

found a part 
Had might of mind been in you. Open the doors 

of Fate 
Stood to your touch: ye came not: and now ye 

cry in vain. 
Leaders must front the van : we led, for we w ere 

strong : 
And the great armies moved to splendid victory. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Ye have enriched the world; but ye have 
taken the riches. 
As in a starless night are we alone with want 
Outside your banquet-doors. Ye only have been 

happy : 
Out of our meager portion there came no hap- 
piness. 



40 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

THE MASTERS 

Happiness? None is happy! We stand with 

straining eyes 
Afar on lonely places, and tremble lest we fall. 
We bear the anxious load of captains as we 

stake 
In dubious adventure all spoils that we have 

won. 
Great is the wager cast ; fierce is the stress of 

fight: 
And victory bears rightly rich treasure in its 

train. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Cease! Ye alone have honor, and we alone 

have toil. 
Ye have banded yourselves against us to fetter 

us the more. 
At first by silent stealth, ere yet we were 

awakened. 
And now combined, defiant, ye take what should 

be ours. 
Yea, all your hoarded riches were stolen from 

our hands : — 
Why should we not arise and claim our right at 

last.? 
Worms that have fattened long; thieves that 

have crept by night! 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 41 



Behold! the judgment dawn, so long deferred, 
has come. 

And a fury rises in us, looking upon your 
faces. 

And the blackness of our wrong calls the light- 
ning to our hands. 

THE SPIRIT OF POWER 

Have done with idle words that draw no light 
from heaven. 
The fire and flood shall join in peace as soon as 

ye. 

Do ye vainly hope the lion will cast his teeth 

and claws? 
Do ye trust the herds will cease to tempt him 

from his hills? 
Arise and gird yourselves; opposed ye stand 

forever ; 
Let the long-suffering years give strength unto 

your hands. 
Let fury be your sword, despair your iron 

buckler. 
And memory of the past your helm and battle- 
plume. 
The judgment-day is here: now let the event 

come forth: 
Now for all time determine which hand shall 

rule and set 



42 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

The straightened ways before the feet of which 

as servant, 
And which shall be the lord, — the equal of my 

reign. 

THE WISE MEN 

Stay, — rashly let no mind presume 
To see the justice of deep things. 
Sweep not the world on maddened wings 
Into that waste of final gloom 
Where Chaos broods above the tomb 
Of man's most fair imaginings. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

May the curse of our sons be on us 
If now we stay our hands. 
We have found our Oppressors ! 
We have found our Oppressors! 
The Past compels us; 
The Future drives us ; 
This is the end ; 
And our hour is come. 

The breaking of bonds 
Today is ours. 
With multifold hands 
Shall our chains be rent. 
Despair is the Past 



Xlhc Breaking of Bonds 43 

And despair the Future. 

This is the end, 

And our hour is come. 

LEADER OF THE WISE MEN 

By all most dear and holy upon earth, 
Stay ye one moment your uplifted hands 
And hear my words before ye plunge our days 
Into the cauldron of tremendous war. 
Ah, ye will harken ! . . . For I knew you men. 
Not brutes who see not past the eager deed. 
And unto men I give this solemn counsel : — 
Here stand your Masters ; — will ye wreck the 

world. 
And all its structures patiently upbuilt, 
Yourselves, and them, in turmoil, ere ye know 
If ordered justice cannot make your peace? 
Will ye tear up the rooted walls of Law 
Ere ye have proved what shelter they can give? 
Nay, ye are men : go, seek before the Law 
Arbitrament between you not in vain. 

THE MASTERS 

Yea, let us go together, as men who seek for 
truth, 
CJnto the Law deep-founded, the guardian of the 
just. 



44 Cbc Breaking of Bonds 

If ye indeed are wronged, ye shall not lack re- 

quitement : 
Till then, let clearer eyes determine and declare. 

THE WISE MEN 

Yea, pause not in this hour; go lay your 
brooded wrongs 
Before the Law, else have ye betrayed your race 
and blood. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Who shall conceive our wrongs 

Save he who felt them? 

Yet will we go. 

And the Law shall speak its word. 

Justice has died in heaven: 

Can it linger upon earth? 

Yet once will we approach it, — 
Again will we beseech it, — 
Hurl ourselves in dust before it, — 
Asking for right. 

Go ye before us. 
Ye Masters over Men! 
Let us approach together 
To the gates of the Law. 
The darkness of night 
Shall be no shelter for you 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds 45 

From the lightnings of our fury 
If ye draw back. 

THE WISE MEN 

Sunlight is darkened o'er the land; 
The wind's white madness stirs the sea. 
Whither shall now the spirit flee 
For calm? The world groans in the hand 
Of struggle. Shall our temples stand 
When life is shaken utterly? 

Behold! there mounts above the tremulous 
earth 
A mighty Presence of august command, 
With form and features veiled as by a haze 
Of distance, or the weakness of our sight. 
Darkness is rayed from it, as from the sun 
Brightness is poured, so that the eye sees not, 
Yet the mind feels, with wonder half afraid. 
Who art thou, solemn Shape, that dost arise 
To brood upon our waverings like a cloud? 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Men call me many names ; but who I am 
Shall not be known till all is manifest 
In the great splendors of the Dawn of God. 
Through the earth's twilight I am still 
obscured, 



46 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Though often felt : as sun, I make the flower 
Toil to fulfillment of mysterious doom; 
As sea, I weave the fishes of the deep 
Into my strange design; and as the Soul 
Stirring beneath the scattered souls of men, 
I rule the world. Mine was the mighty leap 
In the mind of the first man who, looking up- 
ward 
Through the emptiness of night, beheld and felt 
Wonderingly a system in the stars. 
And when Prometheus brought to earth their 

fire. 
He took the fateful embers from my hand. 
Forever changing that no man can name me; 
Yet still the same, for every heart to feel; 
I have my being in the life of earth, 
And gropings, and immortal aspirations, 
And heaven, and starry law. . . . 

THE WISE MEN 

Strange apparition, 
Thou comest to us in an ominous hour 
When the world trembles in an earthquake's 

grasp. 
If so great be thy might, — stay this unrest 
Of Men and Masters, that disturbs the calm 
Of our inviolable safe retreat. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 47 



THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Well did I say that men could know me not. 
I come among you that mine eyes may see 
My forces draw this day unto its close 
In one more dusk of the history of man 
That rounds the cycle. Wherefore, in my will, 
I would not stay the coming of that hour, 
For need of change is on the world today, 
And the earth cries aloud for the purging storm. 
An infinite divertness is upon you; 
Each mind is bound by some traditioned bond. 
Walled round with custom, or enmeshed in faith, 
Or blindly striving toward cruel worthless goals. 
Separate from the universal hope. 
Thus dwells the heart in the deserts of despair. 
Forgetful of life's one allotted end. 

Like the stiff, sapless tree, like the parched 
bough. 

Are these to me, — incapable of bloom. 

And barring sunlight from the seeds beneath. 

Shall impious men delay my onward steps.? 

Nay, such shall perish, in ruin and dust pros- 
trate 

THE WISE MEN 

Hear ye the thunders muttering in the west.'' 



48 Cbe Breahing of Bonds 

What far-off sound comes mingled with their 

roar ? 
The air is trembling as if crowded thick 
With hurrying forms. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Thunder and hurrying forms 
Must drive the blackness from the face of day, 
And with sublime upheaval beat and rend 
The long-polluted caverns wherein man 
Has dwelt in mirk; until his ancient home 
Shall be swept out and cleansed utterly. 
My brow is dim with immemorial pain, 
Having seen so many life-blooms die away, 
A sacrifice to purpose ; yet must sweep 
The sword unpitying. Yea, the tainted bud 
Shall be cut off and cast aside, that still 
The root may live, and each new age's bloom 
Draw nearer to perfection of the flower. 

( Vanish. ) 

THE WISE MEN 

Lo! One comes toward us with the speed of 
fire. 

MESSENGER 

I bear you tidings from the House of Law. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 49 



THE WISE MEN 

Speak swiftly, that we know the great event. 

MESSENGER 

The end is not yet here. Mine eyes have seen 
How in a multitude the Men of Labor 
Thunderously came, before them, cloudlike, 

driving 
The Masters ; while, behind, the Spirit of Power 
Urged as the Hghtning. They drew near to 

where 
The Spirit of the Law slept in his halls. 
They rushed upon him shouting; and he woke. 
And to their clamored questions made response 
Deliberate, beginning a strange tale 
Of how in ancient Babylon the Lords 
Dealt thus and thus with those who toiled for 

them. 
Gray custom of the past he did rehearse ; 
And then he would have told them of some dream 
Dreamed long ago by him. But such a shout 
Rent through the halls that none could hear his 

voice ; 
And I fled forth to tell you what I saw. 

THE WISE MEN 

What now shall come upon them? What dire 
result shall be 



50 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

For these who dare profane the sacred hush of 

Law? 
Darkness is on the hour, and the winds make 

muttering 
Like woeful prophesying around a doomed 

house. 

SECOND MESSENGER 

I bear you tidings ; in the House of Law 
Fury has broken forth ; the Men of Labor 
Suddenly rose and tore from his high seat 
The Spirit of Law, and underneath their feet 
Trampled his body ; even now they surge 
Wild through the stripped and desecrated halls. 

THE WISE MEN 

Listen! What shout is that, as of the fall 
Of nations wailing into some wide gulf ? 
The air beats thick with muffled stress and roar 
Borne from afar, confused as in a dream 

THIRD MESSENGER 

Chaos is come, and the House of Law has 
fallen! 
Over its ruined stones the multitudes 
Rage in tremendous battle. In two ranks 
The Men and Masters move, and surge in fight 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 51 

Through the great corridors. The bloody 

stairs 
Are piled with corpses, and the crumbled stones 
Serve battle-field and missiles ; — such convulsion 
Earth might not see unless the furious waves 
Fought in a last great struggle with the hills. 
And momently do thousands, foe with foe. 
Grapple in death. The Masters locked with 

Men 
Reel to destruction which engulfs them all. 
And the Spirit of Power whirls like a storm 

above them. 
Smiting down blindly into the wild flood. 

THE WISE MEN 

Then this is end; earth passes to its doom. 
Let us prepare us for annihilation 
Of mortal life; — to sink in the whirling gulf. 
What now can save? Oh Veiled Apparition. 
Too truly hast thou spoken. . . And yet per- 
chance 
Some hope may still remain, since battle hangs 
Poised in the scales of the hour 

THE LEADER OF THE WISE MEN 

— See what speeds 
Like a waterspout over the plain toward us. — 
It has come ! — 



52 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

THE SPIBIT OF POWER 

Hail! Hail! Light beacons on the cliffs of 
heaven ! 
Beat with your shouts the battlements of sky 
With furious joy for victory, victory! 

THE WISE MEN 

Victory to whom? — 

THE SPIRIT OP POWER 

Victory to me! To me! 



ACT III 



i 



ACT III 

Scene — A place where four roads meet, in the 
midst of a land of cornfields. Dawn slowly 
breaks during the action. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE Hllil^S 

Mine ears have heard far-off the clamorous 

hosts ; 
But now the last dim murmur dies away; 
And in the sunshine of the quiet fields 
The wind breathes only. — Will they come to 

me, — 
The torn survivors, now that all is past? 
Will they return to the meadows and the sun. 
The simple, natural life of golden days 
So long forgotten? 

O thou great Unknown Spirit 
Who, in the hour when the created world 
Lay all completed at the Maker's feet, 
Wast made the guardian of its onward course 
And painful upward growth, — come unto me; 
Choose thou my fastness as thy dwelling place. 
Where men shall know thee and once more be 

glad 
As in the old days, watched by thee and me. 



56 Che Breahing of Bonds 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Who shall forget the gloom 
Having once been lost in night? 
Who shall forget the tomb 
Having wept for a dead delight? 
Can the heart be wrapped in a rose's bloom, 
Having seen the billows fight? 

Life may not turn again, 
Though the way be still as sweet. 
To the places whence it came; 
Nor the elder soul repeat 
Its simple joy in the summer's flame. 
For the world stays not its feet. 

From the hills no light has flown, 
And the summer's fires still burn. 
But in man's heart have grown 
More wide desires that yearn 
Toward greater life; thy day has flown, 
And it cannot return. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE CITIES 

Thou spirit whose inscrutable command 
Fashions the world, through slowly moulding 

days, — 
O hear me, pity me, turn not thy face. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 57 

My hour of ruin is but now overpast, 

And desolate among my empty streets 

I brood in downfall. Yea, I come to thee 

Beseeching that thou enter mercifully 

To set thy light upon my walls and towers. 

For men are gone from me ; my fires are dead ; 

My life is checked and ended; and, grown cold, 

I lie dishonored on the breast of earth ; — 

I, who in pride and folly reared to heaven 

The mockery of my omnipotence, 

Now lie deserted, ruined by the force 

Of wild convulsion born within my streets. 

Now am I other than I was of yore 

When like a queen I ruled upon the land, 

And held a people fettered in my sway. 

Now have gone by all mine iniquities ; 

The bondage and the darkness and the want 

That held the millions to me have gone by. 

Wherefore be thou my refuge and my hope : 

Come thou to fill my desolated places. 

That life be fair upon them, that men's eyes 

May turn to me, and seek, in fairer mould. 

Fulfillment of the days that were my shame. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

I see thee hideous in thy shame; 
The echo of thy clamor flies 
About mine ears ; yea, and thy name 



58 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

Upon the tainted whirlwind flies 
So dark no horror can defame 
The iniquity that in thee lies. 

To thee I never shall return 
Until thy streets are paved with flowers, — 
Till level on thy floors shall burn 
The sunset's flame, — till thy dark towers 
Lie fallen, and thy funeral urn 
Is blackened by uncounted hours. 

For thou hast soiled mine ancient right. 
Thou hast defiled the hearts of men. 
In this, thy hour of crushed delight. 
Shall I forget what stirred thee then.? 
Go! and the thunders of the night 
Shall rend thy harlot's diadem. 

THE WATCHER 

O Spirit holy and unfathomable. 
With promise girt of all the soul desires ; 
Thou who didst hover o'er the earlier world. 
And from the darkness broughtest forth fair 

life,— 
Now that the world grows old and full of tears. 
And full of dire confusions, wilt thou dwell 
Among us never more? Art thou gone forth 
To lands beyond the sunrise, where the roar 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 59 

Of hideous struggle shall not waken thee? 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Thou lovest me: — and is thy hope 
Then of so frail and brief a scope 
That thou dost dream my sons shall grope 
For me henceforth as one departed? 
Dost thou not know I shall be seen 
When the dead branch once more is green, — 
When men shall be, as they have been. 
High-hearted ? 

Oh man! in dreams I shall arise 
Ever before thy wondering eyes. 
My light shall haunt thy fancy's skies 
Nor shall wide space our union sever. 
All goals thou seekest or hast sought 
Are me, although thou knowest it not. 
And I shall draw thy dreaming thought 
Forever. 

Upon thy winged thought I ride. 
Within thy deepest hope I hide. 
Yea, in thy soul I shall abide 
And keep thy heart forever vernal. 
Far in the future I shall wait. 
And though thou cornest worn and late 
To me, yet here am I, thy fate 

Eternal. (Vanish.) 



60 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

THE WATCHER 

Thy words give strength to my bewildered 
heart. 
I would that they might hear them, whom afar 
I see in melancholy shattered train 
Hitherward moving, with uneager feet. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Wail ye the dirge, 
Wail the last cry 
Of great things fallen. 
We, out of toil, 
Now have brought forth 
Final destruction. 
Over our heads. 
Where shone the lights 
Of the great cities. 
Now hangs the vast 
Vault of the night, 
Lightless and barren. 
Where, in the dawn, 
Streamed up the loud 
Clamor of traffic, 
Now is the dead 
Hush of a white 
Terrible sunrise. 
Bitter the days 
Wherein we toiled. 
Serfs of a master: 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 61 

Bitterer now 
When we look forth 

Unto the future 

All is undone ; 
All goeth by 
Of the old order. 
And in the new, 
Masters and Men 
Wait for destruction. 



THE MASTERS 

As moves a host 
Bearing great dead, 
Sepulture-seeking, 
So are our feet 
Slow on the road 
Leading us — whither? 

Lo! ye have wrought 
Ruin of all 
We have upbuilded. 
Ye have torn down 
What not your hands 
Ever can compass. 
Out of the law 
Ye have brought forth 
Red fruit of ruin. 
All the twined strings 



62 Cbe Breahing of Bonds 



Of the great loom 
Rent ye asunder. 
Laugh now! Rejoice! 
All ye desired 
Ye have accomplished. 
We are brought low ; 
We are destroyed; — 
And the world with us. 



THE WATCHER 

All ye most pitiful, here stay and rest, 
Quit of the horrors of that bloody field. 
How like a pestilence-stricken multitude 
Your heavy steps ye bend. The straggling lines, 
Ruined and broken, move like Autumn leaves. 
Few and dismembered from their parent trunk. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

How can our steps move eagerly or strong.'' 
Our mightiest have fallen, and the world 
Lies rent and ruined. 

THE WATCHER 

Aye, unspeakably 
Have ye wrought ruin on yourselves at last. 
And yet, sink not in downfall utterly. 
At least the ancient days lie buried deep, 



Cbc Breaking of Bonds 63 

With their tremendous weight of gathered woe. 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Whither shall we turn? Our cities lie in 
waste ; 
The fires of our furnaces are dead. 
And of our Hves only remains to us 
The blank reproach of midnight and of day. 
Our folly leers at us from smoking pyres 
And madness comes and looks us in the face. 
We have o'erthrown our Masters ; we ourselves 
In their vast fall likewise are hurled in dust. 

THE MASTERS 

Yea, the world's hope is trampled in the gulf 
Of universal wreck. Imperial dreams, — 
Great structures of the mind and of the hand, — 
Colossal fabrics that the ages reared, — 
All are demolished now. And what remains.? 

THE MEN WHO lABOR 

The elder bonds are gone : — what sorer bonds 
Await us in a desolated world? 
What new device of mastery shall be laid 
Upon us, that too long we be not free? .... 
If any path leads from this world of ruin, 
Show it to us, that we may turn and part. 



64 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 



THE WATCHER 

Can ye not build a new and fairer world, 
Now that the ancient order is no more? 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

What! shall we toil, Masters and Men, once 

more 
To build a towering edifice whose stones 
Once more grown tottering shall once more fall 

down. 
Shaken by convulsion of our children's pain? 
Nay, better let us together seek the edge 
Of the sea, and die, together finding peace. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

Behold, I come among you, — I whose hand 
Ye oft have felt, and might not know it mine. 
Each boon that led you upward I have given, — 
Fire of your furnaces, fire of your hearts. 
Resistless urging toward the uncreated. 
Prophecy of the heights that stood afar. 

THE MEN AND MASTERS 

Why dost thou come among us, fearful Pres- 
ence, 
In this our downfall? Didst thou lead us also 
To this, to make thy sport of our destruction? 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 65 



THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION 

I have shaped and set this doom; wherefore, 
I speak: — 
That from the earth might be annihilated 
The freaked and crippled weeds upon my path. 
Your life was as the tree which, foul and 

knotted, 
Smothers the hillside with its mouldy shade 
And lifts its arms to heaven, cruel and exult- 
ant, — 
Till it draws down the lightning and is riven. 

Have ye not guessed what I so long have 
taught, — 
An end beyond each individual life? 
Ah, had ye halted in the bitter march 
Of trampling progress toward the worthless 

things, 
This internecine strife had never come. 
Until ye doomed yourselves ye were not doomed. 
Blind ! Blind ! I lead you up the perilous steep 
Of man's progression, and ye halt and stoop, 
Kapt in a thousand vain or poisoned hopes, 
And turn from the one hope that is the world's. 

One thing alone is worth your straining 
toil, — 
To seek that way which in good time shall lead 
Up toward the fairer future of mankind. 



66 Cbc Breaking of Bonds 

Deep in the soul of each must rise the dream 
Of man with higher powers, man more divine; 
Flooded with light whose spark was on his brow 
When he emerged from out creation's deeps, 
The wonder and the mystery of the world. 
As from the brute he grew in ages past, 
A greater passion of exalted life 
Shall thrill and glorify him, till he rise 
Godlike and winged with his destiny. 
Such is the fate I give and ye must take. 
This is your pole-star. Crown nor crucifix 
Suffice for this ; but in each secret heart 
The light must spring, — a more than mortal 

sense 
Of ages leading ever toward new heights; 
That the far generations, sweeping on, 
Shall each see clearer, and descry at last 
What wondrous destiny lies free to man. 

Ye shall not see, nor shall your children 
know, 
In any waking vision or pale dream, 
The far event. In the unfathomed sea 
The blindest worm that crawls in awful darkness 
As easily might comprehend the light 
Set in the mind of a poet, as your hearts 
Conceive what powers shall be in the race to 
come. 



Cbe Breahing of Bonds 67 



Yet trust ye may, seeing the flower and brute 
That struggle unto Spirit, and knowing within 

you 
More eager struggle toward the spiritual 

heights 
Unseen but dimly felt around your path. 

But far in distant ages, all the years 
Of weary toil shall turn to their fulfillment. 
The lesser falls ; the higher shall endure ; 
And in the end, the Promised Land shall spread 
Its vast aerial valleys at men's feet. 
Greater mankind shall walk the walls of heaven 
Yet never dreamed. And from the cloudy night 
Of man's long martyrdom shall come the dawn. 

Shall then your children come to this estate.? 
Shall darkness, cruelty, blind suffering. 
Despairs, and lost cries in the cavernous mist 
Pass from men's hearts, and no man be op- 
pressed ? 
Shall man arise greater than men of yore. 
And the race move with never faltering steps.? 
This shall not be till ye have cast away 
Devouring lust for total dominance, — 

For power to hold fettered the lives of men, 

To rule their toil, and bind in narrow want 
The fair, free promptings of a fellow-soul. 



68 Cbe Breaking of Bonds 

For while these last, life struggles, — as in the 

mountains 
Imprisoned forces fight, till the world is riven. 
The Spirit of Power must pass from out your 

sky 
Before can shine the new prophetic dawn. 

THE SPIRIT OF POWER 

My name has been called through the silence ; 

I come, and I find you once more. 
Oh my children, awaiting my touch that shall 

lead you to all you desire. 
Think not I have ever departed or lessened the 

love that I bore; 
Ye are waves, I am sea; ye are stars, I am 

night ; ye are brand, I am fire. 
None other can lead and reward you ; my hands 

hold dominion of earth 
And lordship of waters : I proffer the banners of 

heaven unfurled. 
Rise up and acclaim me, who promise, when ye 

have established your worth, 
A mastery that grips with its hands the un- 

tameable throat of the world. 

THE WATCHER 

Terrible phantom, flee, for thine hour is past. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 



O ye who knew the long night of oppression, 
Joyless to both oppressor and oppressed, — 
Ye who have felt convulsion of the fight, — 
Can any more this fury lead you blinded? 
Who is so great that he might hold this boon, — 
This fearful boon of empire over men, — 
Without destruction? Nay, forever turn 
And leave this sower of universal woe 
To cry in fury down the unpeopled wastes. 

THE MEN WHO liABOE 

Yea, turn thee from us. For we have followed 

thee 
Once to the brink of madness: now we know 

thee 
Born of the mind that has too long been stifled 
In poisonous smoke. — ^And not again we follow 
The trampling terrible pathways of thy feet. 

THE MASTERS 

We too abjure thee. For thou hast betrayed 

us. 
All joys of earth thy promise proffered us; 
And thy fulfillment gave but worn unrest. 
Here, fallen from our high estate we stand, 
Thy victims. But though spent our ancient 

might. 



70 Zhc Breaking of Bonds 

Yet have we strength to cast thy spell aside 
And curse thee to the uttermost end of time. 

THE SPIRIT OF POWER 

O feeble hearts ! O bitter followers ! 
Not twice do I entreat, who once commanded. 
I leave you to the empty dull content 
Of narrow days among the unconquered worlds. 
The desert alone shall be my dwelling-place. . . . 

THE WATCHER 

Behold! it fades; a fire seems leaping up 
Through the vast shape, and gnawing tongues 

of flame 
Destroy it momently. A cloud, — a mist 
Remains, and ashes. But more noble forms 
Mould from the ashes ; — lo ! a flower arises 
White where the swaying phantom late has 

stood. 

MUSIC, AS FROM THE FLOWER 

Peace has arisen. 
Night-dew and rain 
Wash from the stars 
The dust of their stain ; 
Lead the young flowers 
Blooming again. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonde 71 

Burdens no more 
On the days shall be set. 
All may together 
Work in the debt 
Unto the future, — 
Work, and forget. 

Slave and oppressor 
Struggle no more. 
Gone chain or crown 
That they bitterly wore. 
Living and dreaming 
Days lie before. 

No man shall perish 
Sunken to clay. 
Labor and hope 
Shall be j oined in his day ; 
Each, singing, traverse 
In freedom his way. 

Dawn has arisen. 
Let the light glow. 
Phantoms of midnight 
No man shall know 
Save as a sorrow 
Dead long ago. 



72 Cbe Breabing of Bonds 

THE MEN WHO LABOR 

Behold, the end has come ; and the beginning 
Of a new aeon in the shaken world. 
That nameless spirit whose prophetic voice 
But late has spoken, hovers o'er our thoughts, 
Inspiring them with hope. We will create 
Anew the order of men's lives and state 
More justly, that the fabric shall endure. 
Oppose us not in this our great emprise 
Lest we, O Masters, chain ye at our feet ! 
The fruits of labor shall no longer fall 
Into the lap of some whom wealth has made 
Pensioners of the rest's unwilling toil. 
The age-long struggle of the slave and lord 
Here ends ; and freedom reascends the world. 

THE MASTERS 

Thus sang they who the Tower of Babel 

reared. 
Yea, build anew your cherished universe. 
Perhaps the day will come when ye shall fall 
Powerless by the wayside, all confused 
For lack of us, the Masters of your hate. 
Then shall ye learn the folly of your dream, 
And know that we, whose wise command did 

guide 
Colossal projects through their perilous course, 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 73 



Rendered ye service greater than ye guessed. 
Go, and create the world of your desire ; 
Trouble us not, who, fallen, scorn ye still. 



THE WATCHEE 

In the hour when the mark 
Of the fight stains each brow. 
And the future is dark. 
Then, brothers, avow 

No bitterness unto each other. Let silence be 
balm for you now. 

Iron hand against hand 
Ye have hfted of late. 
As strangers ye stand. 
Part now; and await 

The slow work of years, which effaces all 
wounds and all wrongs and all hate. 

The fury ye knew 
When ye stood face to face 
Still pierces you through 
In this blood-haunted place. 
But Time shall annul it, whose rains even words 
carved in granite erase. — 



74 Zhc Breahitig of Bonds 



Time, the healer of all, 
Dims the wrath and the fears : 
And bedews each dark pall 
With compassionate tears ; 

And the bitterness fades deep in sorrowful 
thought with remoteness of years. 

And out of the madness 
Of struggle and hate 
First estrangement, then sadness. 
Then, — slowly and late, — 

Will emerge, at the last, understanding of each, 
and the blindness of fate. 

And foe meets the foe 
And knows him for friend. 
And together they go 
In peace toward that end 

Whither life and the forces beneath it and all 
man's aspirings must tend. 

And the wisdom of Time 
Shall reveal and make plain 
That the paths ye must climb 
Are not many, nor twain. 

But one, which till Time set, forever insepar- 
ably one shall remain. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 75 

From today it is far, 
And your souls are oppressed. 
As remote as a star 
Seems that future where rest 
From blind strife awaits the unborn. Yea, long 
is the path of your quest. 

The end is not wrought 
In a moment's brief space. 
The false dreams ye sought 
Must slowly give place. 

Ye must painfully heal, as years pass, the 
wound that embitters the race. 

But through the slow days. 
Often baffled and vain. 
Ye shall turn toward new ways 
That your sons may attain 
To a union of Master and Man, and forget the 
long night of our pain. 

Far as dawn in the skies 
Is from valleys of earth. 
That miracle lies 
From ye now in your dearth. 
Yet behold, if ye seek ye shall find it in won- 
drous transitions of birth. 



76 Cbe Breahtng of Bonds 

Who leaves day in sorrow 
Shall greet her in song, 
At the dawn of to-morrow, 
When the cloud-peaks shall throng 
With the forms of innumerable legions that 
scatter their burdens of wrong. 

For midnight doth sunder 
Each day from the past. 
With the might of its thunder 
That rends through the vast 
Abysm on the fire-winged steeds of the light- 
ning: and dawn follows fast. 

Behold, in the East 
There arises a light. 
As the flame which the Priest 
Kindles on the pure height 

Of the mountains where chariots of God bear 
the lamps of the day and the night. 

In this hour, let us part 
From the pathways outworn, 
And turn, as the heart 
In adventure is borne. 

Free and equal, with hope toward the luminous 
heights, where behold! it is morn. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 77 

Like the world ye have shattered 
Your spirits are weak. 
But the forces far-scattered 
Turn home: yea, they speak 
In your souls. Having compassed so much will 
ye pause at the gate that ye seek? 

Gone the bonds of the slave, 
And the bonds of the lord. 
To ye both the past gave 
One fettering cord. 

Lift we praise ! That the bonds of ye both could 
be cleft by one stroke of God's sword. 

Lift we praise ! that the years 
Of a past that is dead 
Could not stay ye with fears, 
Could not numb ye with dread. 
Could not bind the free soul, though worn was 
the heart, though bowed was the head. 

Lift we praise ! that from dark 
Ye have dreamed of the light, — 
That now ye embark 
From the confines of night 
Toward a dawn where the Kingdom of Man 
shall arise on our wondering sight. 



78 Zhc Breaking of Bonds 

Let the nobler day come. 
No more are men bowed 
In toil with souls dumb, 
That our age may be proud 
Of its engines and lights, its riches and scope, 
— Saviors once it avowed. 



No more is the guerdon 
Of the world's hope, to wield 
Vast power, and to burden 
The masses, whose yield 

Enriches the few, — while to all men the gate- 
ways of peace are fast-sealed. 

For our eyes have had vision 
Through the shadows that furled, 
Past all doubt, past derision. 
Of one hope for the world, — 
That each soul shall grow free in its strength, 
and each barrier dustward be hurled. 

Thus the high heart of man 
Sees the ultimate mould. 
Yet dark is the plan 
That must slowly unfold. 

Step by step we must fashion an order through 
ways unbeheld, unforetold. 



Cbe Breaking of Bonds 79 

So from dark the world grew. 
On Creation's first day 
Not the Lord thereof knew 
Each step of the way, 
Nor the growths that the years would bring 

forth, nor the foes that should mar and 

delay. 

New Masters may rise, 
But they shall not endure. 
We shall push our emprise 
Past each barrier and lure 

Through ways that are dim, to an end that is 
clear, with a hope that is sure. 

Crowns of gold or of thorn 
Are as phantoms that pale 
In the infinite dusk ; 
Yet one crown shall not fail, — 
Yea, the crown of man's ultimate freedom that 
over the world shall prevail. 



OCT 20 1910 



One copy del. to Cat, Div. 



OCT 20 1910 



